COP George Alex Mensah
COP George Alex Mensah

Commission­er of Police (COP) George Alex Mensah has explained that his quest to replace Dr George Akuffo Dampare as Inspector-General of Police is not to undermine the credibility of the 2024 general election.

Testifying before the sev­en-member parliamentary committee probing a leaked tape in which he was heard lobby­ing through a former Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Chief BugriNaabu, to be the IGP, COP Mensah said his intention was to stop any “mafia” work in the polls.

He said the IGP was “fight­ing” the military and that alleged rift could have dire consequences on the integrity of the security of the polls because the police could not handle election security alone.

To this end, COP Mensah said, he would have ensured a cordial relationship with all security agencies so that the polls could be free, fair and transparent from a security perspective.

“What I would have done would be to be in a good relation­ship with all security institutions so that we can all work together so that the election is conducted and no party can do the ‘ma­fia’work anywhere to subvert the will of the people,” he told the Committee on Friday.

“Election security is not only by the police. It is by the police and all other security agencies, including the military. And if you have an IGP who is not in a good relationship with all the security institutions, then supervising the election is going to be difficult,” he added.

COP Mensah, who admit­ted to saying on the tape that DrDampare was in bed with the opposition National Democratic Congress, said he would have ensured a level playing field for all parties in the polls.

According to COP Mensah who is on terminal leave prior to his retirement, the police alone could not protect the sanctity of the polls, hence the need for col­laboration between sister security agencies.

“You need all these security institutions to support the police because the number of polling stations outnumber the police and you need all these duster security institutions to assist,” he said.

Chief BugriNaabu, COP Mensah police said, was unhappy with the delivery of the IGP and was scouting for his replacement even before he was approached by Inspector George Asare.

“The purpose of MrBugri­Naabu inviting me was that one of my boys, the police officers, had gone to tell him that if they are looking for a new Inspector General of Police, then the man that he thinks can do the job and do it well is Commissioner George Alex Mensah,” he said.

BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI